SRINAGAR, India (AP) – Authorities in India-controlled Kashmir have sent at least 168 Rohingya refugees to a detention center, police said on Sunday, in a process they say is for the deportation of thousands of refugees living in the region.
The move began on Saturday after a directive from the region’s domestic department to identify Rohingya who lives in the southern city of Jammu, said Inspector General Mukesh Singh. He said that about 5,000 Rohingya Muslims have taken refuge in Jammu in recent years.
“They are all living illegally here and we have started to identify them,” said Singh. “This process is to finally deport them to their country.”
More than 1 million Rohingya have fled waves of violent persecution in their home country, Myanmar, and currently live mainly in overcrowded and miserable refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Since Saturday, authorities have called hundreds of Rohingya to a stadium in Jammu, taking their personal and biometric data and testing them for the coronavirus. A prison has been converted into a detention center on the outskirts of the city, and at least 168 Rohingya have already been sent there, Singh said.
Refugees, who have already faced hostility in the city, were not informed of what was happening. Jammu is an area dominated by Hindus in Kashmir, the majority Muslim, controlled by India.
Khatija, a Rohingya Muslim woman who uses a name, said Indian authorities took her son on Saturday and she did not know where he was being held. Her daughter-in-law gave birth on Sunday morning, she said.
It is estimated that 40,000 Rohingya have taken refuge in parts of India. Less than 15,000 are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Many have settled in areas of India with large Muslim populations, including the city of Hyderabad, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi. Some have taken refuge in northeastern India, on the border with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The Indian government claims to have evidence that there are extremists who pose a threat to the country’s security among the Rohingya and calls them all “illegal immigrants” who will be deported.
In 2018 and 2019, Indian authorities deported at least 12 Rohingya in two groups to Myanmar. Human rights groups have asked the Indian government to abandon Rohingya’s deportation plans and evaluate its asylum applications.